Petrarch - Sonnet CVIII lyrics

FAR FROM HIS FRIENDS, HE FLIES TO THEM IN THOUGHT The more my own fond wishes would impel My steps to you, sweet company of friends! Fortune with their free course the more contends, And elsewhere bids me roam, by snare and spell The heart, sent forth by me though it rebel, Is still with you where that fair vale extends, In whose green windings most our sea ascends, From which but yesterday I wept farewell. It took the right-hand way, the left I tried, I dragg'd by force in slavery to remain, It left at liberty with Love its guide; But patience is great comfort amid pain: Long habits mutually form'd declare That our communion must be brief and rare. Macgregor.